Economics World Loses Star Thinker

John McMillan, the man who “could make Economics jump right off the page,” has died from cancer complications aged 56. Born in Christchurch, McMillan taught economics at America’s Stanford Graduate School of Business since 1999. “John in many ways epitomized the Stanford Business School,” said School dean Robert L. Joss. “He was a brilliant scholar; he made important contributions to microeconomic theory, but his special talent was in applying theory to real-world issues and problems. And he was a superb expositor.” McMillan’s numerous career honours include being elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Distinguished Fellow of the NZ Economics Association, winning the Canadian Economics Association’s Harry Johnson Prize and editing the prestigious Journal of Economic Literature from 1998 to 2004. A keen mountain climber, traveller and rugby player, McMillan wrote on an equally diverse range of issues: from Jamaica’s reggae recording industry to the price of bribery in Peru. His book editor, Drake McFeely, remembers “a New Zealand footballer who drove a slightly dinged-up little blue Miata and who was at least as comfortable talking about the Grateful Dead as he was discussing market or auction design.”

John McMillan: 22 January 1951 – 13 March 2007